How does experience help? And how do you help yourself, in case you dont have it?

Written on Tuesday, March 17, 2009 by Siddharth PV

When you are experienced - you have seen a lot more.
You have been in similar situations before.
You have seen the possible problems that you could face.
You know that A,B,C things work... And X, Y, Z approaches dont work. ( The list may not be exhaustive, but you still more than others.)
You have the initial 'comfort factor' of having 'been there and done that'
This can be a BIG morale booster. It helps you begin well.

And well begun is half done, well done.
Period.

So, how does a newbie on the job try and match his manager? (who, on most occasions would be his grand-daddy as far as the domain is concerned)

1. Be exceptionally brilliant (unfortunately cant proactively do too much about this)
2. Out-Listen, Out-Read & Out-Think

Out-Listen:
Keep your eyes and ears open - Take in ALL the gyan that you can.
You never know what might come in handy.

Out-Read:
What makes your managers so good is the rich exposure of the years that they have spent - handling problems REAL TIME.
If you read enough RELEVANT material (there are enough books, blogs, manuals out there) - You will read about the mistakes that you could make - that your manager would have already made, lived through AND LEARNT.
That way, you are cutting through your learning curve, putting yourself in a better position.

Out-think:
Most difficult of all. But spend more time analysing the problem at hand. Spend more thought on it. If you are reading and listening enough, this will be easier.

............

Of course - at the end of the day - living throuhg something can never be replaced by Listening, Reading or Thinking about it.
But atleast - you would know more. Your mind would have been exposed to a newer dimension. And as Einstein says -
Once your mind has been stretched to a new dimension, it WILL NOT go back to the old dimension.
You would have grown.

Posted in experience, importance of reading, listening, thinking